Lu Ye feasted on a large snake beside the dying embers of a fire. That large snake was at least 3 meters long and as thick as his forearm. Its meat was very delicate and tender, which left a lingering fragrance in his mouth.
It had been half a month since he exhausted his supply of Spirit Pills. During this period, the results of his cultivation progress could not compare to before. However, it was better than what he had estimated previously. Judging from his current progress, he would be able to break through the barrier of his ninth Spiritual Point in another month.
The main reason he could achieve such progress was that he had discovered something: The efficiency of refining vitality into Qi was greater than absorbing Spiritual Qi. And, where did he obtain that vitality? Without the Qi Blood Pills, he could only obtain it through eating!
He had first noticed it when he ate the wolf meat earlier. When he later hunted several other beasts, he found that the meat of these beasts living in the Spirit Creek Battlefield was very nutritious. The larger these beasts, the stronger the supplementary effect.
He was not very adept at absorbing Spiritual Qi. It might be due to his low talent, but it was very difficult for him to bring the Spiritual Qi into his body. On the contrary, it was different when it came to the food he ate. Anything that he could digest would aid in replenishing his blood and Qi. Then, he refined the vitality in his body into Spiritual Power, which could also lead to the enhancement of his strength.
For that reason, there was a significant decrease in the number of beasts in the surrounding areas over the past half month. Lu Ye, who already had an increase in appetite ever since he achieved Enlightenment, was eating more than ever now that he had converted to cultivating by refining his vitality into Qi. His actions ultimately resulted in not a single beast to be seen within several kilometers of this cave. He had to search for a very long time before he came across this large snake today.
Lu Ye was halfway through his meal when the entrance to the cave darkened and a foul stench blew in his face. Lifting his head, he saw a large figure standing at the entrance of the cave. Moreover, a low roar was coming from that direction.
He hurriedly got to his feet and took out the longsword from his Storage Bag. Holding the sword in one hand, he held a Fiery Snake Talisman Paper in the other hand while simultaneously drawing upon his Spiritual Power in secret.
He had been living here for a month now. During this period, he had not encountered any other cultivators nor large and powerful beasts. Hence, he had thought that this was a peaceful place. He never imagined he would be disturbed by an unexpected guest today.
It wasn’t until this moment that he saw what his uninvited guest was. It turned out to be a tiger. The tiger was covered in spotlessly clean fur that was as white as snow. There was the character ‘King’ on its forehead, and its pale amber tiger eyes were extremely enchanting.
When Lu Ye met the gaze of that pair of tiger eyes, he felt his mind sway for a moment and knew that he had run into something very powerful. He had killed many beasts during this period. There had been beasts even bigger than this tiger, but there had never been a beast that gave him such an oppressive feeling as this tiger. He was an Eight Spiritual Point cultivator now. This was not an ordinary beast. It was most likely a Spirit Beast with a cultivation base!
There was a difference between a Spirit Beast and an ordinary beast. Spirit Beasts were capable of cultivating. It was said that Spirit Beasts would be able to take on Human forms if they unlocked certain Spiritual Points. That was where the saying ‘Demons who were not Enlightened had difficulty taking Human form, and Humans who were not Enlightened had difficulty cultivating’ in Jiu Zhou originated from.
There were many Sects that would take Demon cultivators in as disciples. That was because most Demon cultivators were physically strong, so they were natural talents born to become body tempering cultivators.
Since Lu Ye did not know much about the Cultivation World in Jiu Zhou, it was only natural that he was unaware of this information. The only thing he knew was that he was currently stuck in a sticky situation. He was inside a cave and the tiger was blocking the entrance of the cave. There was no way out of this situation unless he killed the tiger. Unfortunately, he did not know how powerful this tiger was.
During their confrontation, the tiger roared at him. It made him even more nervous than before, and he nearly activated the Fiery Snake Talisman Paper in his hand!
“Boy, are you the one who is going around on a killing spree?” A thunderous voice resounded inside the cave, causing the rocks in the surroundings to come tumbling down from the tremors.
Lu Ye couldn’t help jumping in shock. He stared at the tiger with an expression of inexplicable astonishment.
“Yes, I am the one who is speaking. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill, brat!” The tiger spoke again as though it had seen through Lu Ye’s doubts.
Lu Ye felt his heart sinking to the bottom. [This is bad. I seem to have underestimated this tiger’s true strength. This guy is capable of Human speech. I don’t know what cultivation it has, but it seems to be much stronger than me.]
“I am asking you a question. Why aren’t you speaking?” The tiger seemed to be bad-tempered. It gave another roar, and an even more threatening growl came from its throat.
[There’s nothing to worry about if it’s a blessing. But, if it’s a curse, I won’t be able to avoid it anyway.] With that thought in mind, Lu Ye could only bite the bullet and deny, “It wasn’t me!”
That tiger lifted its paws and slapped the ground in a fury. The entire ground trembled from the force. “Who else could it be if not you!? You are the only Human within a radius of 10 kilometers in this area!” It paced the entrance of the cave, but its eyes never left Lu Ye. “This is my territory! How dare you wilfully slaughter my food without my expressed permission!? It seems you don’t want to live anymore!”
Lu Ye felt his scalp go numb, suddenly feeling as though he was toeing the line between life and death. Nevertheless, he finally understood the reason the tiger had come looking for him. This area was its territory, so all the beasts he had killed so far were the food in its territory. He had killed so many during the past half month that it had caught the tiger’s attention and it came looking for clues as a result.
“Speak. How do you plan to resolve this matter?” the tiger asked.
At this point, Lu Ye was not in as much of a panic as he had been before. Although it was strange that a Spirit Beast was here to negotiate terms with him, it was still better than the other party coming to kill him without any warning. Frowning, he asked, “I’ve already eaten everything. How do you want me to resolve this matter?”
The tiger stared at Lu Ye steadily and said, “Hand over all your Spirit Pills, and I’ll consider this matter over. If you dare to refuse, this place will become your grave today!”
“I ran out of Spirit Pills.” Lu Ye shook his head. [Why would I kill beasts for their meat if I still had Spirit Pills?]
The tiger said, “Spirit Stones will work too!”
“I don’t have Spirit Stones either.” [The Sect Master didn’t prepare any Spirit Stones for me. Maybe he thinks that I won’t be able to use them?]
“You don’t have this and you don’t have that. It looks to me that you are begging to die!” It was obvious that the tiger was rather irritated.
Lu Ye sighed. “I really don’t have any!”
“Then, what do you have in your Storage Bag!?” The tiger roared.
“Some Spirit Talisman Papers and a bottle of Healing Pills,” Lu Ye replied honestly.
“What a poor bastard!” The tiger couldn’t help sneering. “Hand me the Healing Pills, and I’ll let this matter go.”
“Why do you need the Healing Pills?” Lu Ye’s expression was a little strange.
“Why do you care!? Give them to me quickly!”
“Fine…” Lu Ye reluctantly replied. He took out a bottle of Healing Pills, pondered for a moment, and slowly placed it on the ground.
“Toss it here!” the tiger instructed.
Lu Ye glanced at the tiger. “Why don’t you come and get it yourself?”
“I told you to toss it here!” Lu Ye’s attitude had angered the tiger. It let out a fierce roar in response.
“Fine.” Lu Ye lifted his foot and kicked the bottle on the ground over to the tiger. At the same time, he activated the Fiery Snake Talisman Paper in his hand. As the Spiritual Qi in his body surged, the Spirit Talisman Paper transformed into a red light and shot toward the tiger like a fire snake. That wasn’t all. He stomped down and lunged forward for the kill with the sword in hand, his figure resembling thunder and lightning itself.